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#THE BBS ZINE#
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#BY MHJ#
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#Issue 7 - For the week of 10/06/19 - 10/12 #
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#Date Published - 10/22/19 #
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Index:
Foreward
Amateur Radio BBS
Amiga Frontier
Amstrad BBS
NULL: A BBS E-mag
BBS Real Time Chatting
BBSes and File Sharing
Game of the Week
Music of the Moment
Links
Outro
Contact
Next Issue Preview

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#Foreward#
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So I’ve decided the following concerning the zine. It will now be monthly, and I will spend more time at just one BBS instead of many. This will allow me to get a better understanding of everything. Additionally, I will only cover BBSes that interest me or are popular or new. I just feel like it’s impossible to cover every BBS ever.

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#Amateur Radio BBS#
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Amateur Radio BBS was down, so unfortunately, no screenshots of it.

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telnet://amateurradiobbs.com:2323

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#Amiga Frontier #
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As I need to apply for an account there, this will be covered again some other time.

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telnet://frontierbbs.net:8888 ssh://frontierbbs.net:8889

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#Amstrad BBS #
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This BBS was pretty interesting. It was all about the Amstrad line of home computers. I don’t know much about those home computers, but it did seem pretty interesting that they decided to make a BBS all about them.

I think this BBS doesn’t get enough love, I noticed that there weren’t many calls to it. Show the SysOp some fun and give them a call!

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telnet://amstrad.simulant.uk:464 ssh://amstrad.simulant.uk:6128/

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#NULL: A BBS E-mag#
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Just wanted to give a shout-out to a fellow BBS supporter, xqtr! He writes NULL, a executable(!) e-mag that regularly features columns, music and more about BBSes. His work is pretty amazing. Check his mag out at the following: https://github.com/xqtr/null

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#BBS Real Time Chatting#
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One of the great things about BBSes is the chatting. Most seem to use something like IRC, so it feels natural to just be able to talk back and forth. There’s also the fact that the SysOp can break into your session at anytime. That’s happened to me once and it was great getting to know them.

I really prefer real time chatting to email, as it’s easier to fire off and get to know someone quicker, rather than waiting for possibly days to hear back from them. Of course, that sort of thing isn’t always conducive to careful, thought out replies.

The rise of secure instant messaging has been a blessing, such as Telegram, Signal and so on - but it’s good to go back and see how messaging was on a BBS. It feels much more like a public forum than a all-out spam fest like some of the bigger group chats are.

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#BBSes and File Sharing#
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File sharing has been around since forever, although for most people it started with things like Napster. Back in the BBS days though, I heard that many things were shared, from shareware(of course), to warez, to music and everything in-between.

Of course, having lived back then, in the days of CompuServe and Prodigy, I remember it being particular slow to download much of anything. So the best things to get was simple shareware games, FAQs and pictures. Everything you downloaded felt like a teasure, because it cost you potentially some money depending on how you got to the BBS.

I think today people just try to digitally hoard things because the speeds are so fast and the drives are so big. I think reducing our digital footprints is important, so perhaps, like ‘simple living’, there should be a ‘simple digital life’ to go along with it.

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#Links#
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VGMusic - lots of video game MIDI music https://vgmusic.com/

Tilde News - Part of the tildeverse, but for news! https://tilde.news/

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#Game of the Week#
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Assassin:

This game is pretty cool. I didn’t play it much beyond making my own character named Mario. It seems a bit like LORD but with a more interesting premise. I think it seems to be fun, so I would definitely recommend it.

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#Music of the Moment#
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Super Metroid OST Complete: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C4-ay3RUzk

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#Outro#
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I hope I didn’t disappoint anyone with this announcement, but I have to be reasonable concerning this. I want the zine to continue for as long as possible, but I also want quality over quantity. Thanks for reading this issue.

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#Contact#
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For questions, concerns, comments and anything else, please contact me at the following: mhj@sdf.org

Thank you.

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#Next Issue#
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BBS:
Atrium
Columns:
Multiplayer BBS Games
ANSI art showcase
Guest column
Game of the Week
Links

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